


Becoming

by twicejinxed



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Everyone is either a slayer or a vampire pretty much, F/F, Same etheria setting just with vampires, Slayer!Adora, Vampire AU, Vampire Slayer AU, Vampire!Catra, no beta we die like men, vampire horde
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27741412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twicejinxed/pseuds/twicejinxed
Summary: “Do it,” Catra dared, baby fangs gleaming in the moonlight. “I dare you.”Adora’s right hand, gripping the stake she held against Catra’s chest, shook just slightly, imperceptible to the human eye. Lucky Catra was no longer fully human. She saw. She smiled.“You can’t.”
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 75





	1. becoming

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to put the whole intro in the notes but then it got too long.
> 
> Basically: Adora = slayer, Catra = half-demon, on no what happen? 
> 
> I have no clue how much I will write but this occupies a significant portion of my brain.
> 
> I stole the title from a buffy the vampire slayer ep.

Adora and Catra grew up side by side in Lord Hordak’s army--a crew of orphaned human children raised in combat, brought up to become perfect soldiers, impeccable in strength and form. 

On their eighteenth birthday, they are granted the gift of eternity, as granted by Lord Hordak’s own venom and blood. Catra eagerly awaits the day humanity drains from her veins, but even after Lord Hordak’s blessing, the venom takes a year to come into full effect. She envies slightly older Adora for her advantage in years, not knowing that Adora would come to reject this “gift”. 

Adora hadn’t expected to stumble across a stake in the forest, its faint blue glow pulling her in like a siren’s call. When she pulled the sharpened wood from the cracked earth, she certainly hadn’t anticipated her transformation into She-Ra, the ancient vampire slayer of legend, the chosen one who would save humanity from the encroaching darkness. 

It’s been six months since the day Adora stumbled into her fate, joining a legion of slayers she’d once considered enemies. Three months since Catra had accepted what she considered her own fate, made explicit by the dark fang marks on her neck, which would only fade once the transformation completed. Nothing, save her own betrayal, could stop her evolution. Rumors persisted of an antidote deep within the caverns of Hordak’s base, used only on traitors who defiled Hordak’s name. Much easier to do away with a human than a half-demon. Much more satisfying to let said traitor be torn apart and devoured by their former comrades. 

Catra would never let that happen. Catra would be a perfect vampire, even better than Adora, darling Adora, would have ever been. 

Adora swore to stop her, swore to stop all of Hordak’s army before they took over all of Etheria, imprisoning all human life. Silently, she swore to herself to find the antidote. 

Neither of them, no matter how hard they wished, could turn back time. 

\---

“Do it,” Catra dared, baby fangs gleaming in the moonlight. “I dare you.” 

Adora’s right hand, gripping the stake she held against Catra’s chest, shook just slightly, imperceptible to the human eye. Lucky Catra was no longer fully human. She saw. She smiled. 

“You can’t.” 

\--

They spotted her on the horizon. Just like she wanted, Adora thought. The ocean pulled in and out lazily, in stark contrast with the slayer’s frantic heartbeat. 

Glimmer’s lip curled, magical energy pulsating around her body in hues of pink and purple, casting ethereal shadows on the sand. She’d had more than enough. 

“I’ll put that demon in her place,” she snarled. 

Her rose gold hair stood up on end. Adora tried not to wince from her choice of words. 

She wasn’t a demon. Not yet. 

“Let me handle her,” Adora said, retrieving the stake from her hip.

Now she pulsed, the power of She-ra flooding her senses, strength and might and the power of the moon. 

Glimmer wasn’t one for backing down. 

“Let us help you,” she said, her current now glowing dark violet. 

Bow stood at the ready, arrow poised, eyes sharpened to a point.

They both knew this world better than Adora. They’d grown in it, raised to slay, just as Adora had been raised to hate them for reasons she’d never understood. 

“We know what we’re doing,” Glimmer said. “I’ve been slaying since I was old enough to walk.” 

Glimmer knew more than Adora, that was true. But no one knew better than She-Ra. No one. 

Especially not the speck of flesh and tooth crouched on the rock overlooking the shore. 

A cry in the opposite direction, back toward the crumbling ruins hunched by the cove, drew their attention away from the looming half-demon. They looked to each other for guidance. Was it the captor they’d come here to rescue, or was it a false signal? 

The path to virtue meant believing in every cry for help. 

“Glimmer, should we--” Bow trailed off, eyes darting back and forth between the creature on the rocks and the question mark in the distance. 

“Fine,” Glimmer huffed. “We’ll go deal with that. You deal with.. That.” 

“I will,” She-ra reassured her. 

“You’re convincing when your hair glows.” She rested her hand on Bow’s arm. “Good luck.”

She gave a nod just before they disappeared, spirited away by Glimmer’s magic to whatever awaited them in the ruins. 

She-ra took a deep breath and gripped her stake tighter. 

Damn, it’d be nice to be able to teleport, she thought as she walked steadfast toward her opponent, combat boots kicking up sand in her wake. 

\--

She was just sitting there. That was the worst part. Her legs pumped over the rocky edge, and she looked so human. Like in a memory. 

“Took you long enough,” Catra said, leaning back on her elbows and arching her back. 

The twin wounds on her neck shown like stars. Adora--She-ra--swallowed before the bile rose. 

“Why are you here?” the slayer asked, keeping her hand close to her weapon. 

“Why are _you_ here?” 

Catra hopped up on her haunches, pulling herself up to full form. She smiled, letting the moonlight glint against her pearly baby fangs. Too dull to make a clean bite, but just sharp enough to threaten. 

“Oh, wait, don’t tell me,” she continued. “You either wanna kill me, or tell me to give _this_ up.” 

She gestured to her growing fangs. 

“Oh, Catra, the humans aren’t _that_ bad,” she said, mocking Adora’s higher pitched voice. “Just ignore all the war and sickness and famine and genocide and, god, what else, disease? Did I say that already?”

Adora didn’t answer. She felt her breath rise and fall, her body still pulsing with She-ra’s power.

She wanted to say “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

She wanted to say “You still have a chance.” 

But Catra was glowing like she’d swallowed the moonlight, and how was it possible for someone to look so sallow and radiant at the same time? Her pale tan skin flickered like a dimming lightbulb, like a spark on the verge of flickering into a flame. She was still the same mercurial girl Adora had grown up with, still all bruises and elbows, but now with a hint of something more--more flesh, more teeth. Adora half believed if she rubbed her eyes hard enough, she’d be rewarded with the sight of the girl she’d once been. They could both be the girls they’d once been, stupid with innocence. 

“What, nothing to say?” Catra teased, laying a long-nailed finger against her cheek. “Cat got your tongue?” 

She-ra brought the stake, now casting indigo sparks, against her chest. On any other person, her position might look fearful, defensive. She-ra was not afraid for herself. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she confessed. “But you can’t do this.” 

“Can’t do what?” She cocked her head. 

“I know what you think you have.”

Catra rose her eyebrows in faux surprise, tucking her hands in her pockets and pretending to walk away before retrieving what they’d both come here to find. 

”What I _think_ I have?” 

The night ruby. Two of three. One more, and Hordak would have enough to conquer the sunlight.

She leapt up on a ledge above the slayer’s head and juggled the ruby back and forth. 

“You’ve always been a terrible liar,” She-ra said, still holding her stake at the ready and watching Catra’s playful dance. “Even now.” 

“Now?” Catra smiled, another terrible smile just to bare her teeth. “Tell me, slayer, what am I lying about now?”

“That’s not the real ruby, for one.” 

Catra’s smile fell into the ocean. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” 

Adora paused, taking in the information, eyes darting as she put the pieces together. 

“Hordak didn’t tell you.”

“Tell me _what_?” 

Catra leapt up again, tucking the possibly false ruby into her top. 

“I thought you knew,” Adora furrowed her brow in thought. “This is just a distraction. You think he’d trust you with the actual ruby?” 

Catra snarled. “I don’t like your implication, blondie.” 

Adora shook her head. She hadn’t realized when she’d faded into her human self, but it had happened nonetheless. 

”I can tell that’s not real. There’s no aura to it,” She said, eyes darting as she put the pieces together herself, her slayer sense picking up the trace of a heavy aura that had already come and gone. “He already has it, doesn’t he? He’s already been here.” 

He’d never trust a fledgling with the ruby. Of course not. This was a distraction. Just like the scream from the ruins. Unless that wasn’t a distraction, and Adora had made a terrible mistake. She tried to listen for the sounds of fighting or footsteps but heard nothing over the crashing waves. Glimmer and Bow might need her, and here she was, wasting her time with Hordak’s diversion. 

“You’re a liar.” 

Catra tried to growl, but she couldn’t quite yet. She was still so human. She was still…

Now Adora was distracted. Now Catra had the chance to push her against the rock, to pull back her lips and press her hot breath against Adora’s skin. She felt the blood pulse beneath her skin and couldn’t decide between repulsion and desire. Eat, kill, love--it was all the same.

Adora pressed back, aura returning to her weapon. She clenched the sharpened wood in her fist and willed it to hold. Ground her teeth together. 

“Don’t make me hurt you.” 

Catra could claim she never made her do anything. Least of all, let her live.


	2. Strong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer isn't happy.

_“Do it,” Catra dared, baby fangs gleaming in the moonlight. “I dare you.”_

_Adora’s right hand, gripping the stake she held against Catra’s chest, shook just slightly, imperceptible to the human eye. Lucky Catra was no longer fully human. She saw. She smiled._

_“You can’t.”_

\--

_3 months prior_

They lay side by side on the stone floor of the training room, the sheen of sweat on their skin, the up and down of their chests more shameful evidence of their humanity. When humans fought, even in play, their bodies gave out over time. Play with them long enough, and they’d give up completely. This was a lesson, one they’d been instructed to practice with each other. 

“What,” Adora gasped, wiping her forehead with her arm, dressed in the night black uniform of the horde, “are you tired, or something?” 

“Or… something.” 

Catra took a deep breath and jumped into a crouching position, looking intimidating for a moment, before toppling over again. Her head fell between Adora’s chest and chin with a thunk. 

“Owwww,” the blonde moaned, wincing as the other girl showed no sign of getting up again. 

“Just gonna… rest… for a second.” 

Her eyes closed, and Adora couldn’t bring herself to push her off. It didn’t matter that her curly brown hair tickled her mouth and her skull threatened to cut off her oxygen supply. It was as if they’d slipped into a hidden pocket in the universe, somewhere beyond these wars. A strange sensation, a gentle static, spread from the top of her head through the rest of her body. She figured she’d stay there until Catra fell asleep, then maybe even beyond that. 

They didn’t get to decide. They never did. 

\--

_Now_

Adora’s hand still quaked, no matter how hard she tried to remember her training with Glimmer and the rest of the slayer corps, who had taken her under their wing only months ago. How many demons had she slain without hesitation? 

Zero. It always hurt some part of her. The part that remembered. 

She resisted every part of her that screamed out to give in. 

“You just gonna hold that stake like a bouquet, slayer?” 

Catra’s nose twitched as she spoke, a habit Adora recognized. 

This was still the girl she’d grown up beside, albeit with a set of slightly sharper teeth.

“You don’t have to do this,” Adora said, eyebrows drawing together in concern. “You still have a choice.” 

Catra made a sound between a chuckle and a sigh.

“I made my choice. The right choice.” Her dark eyes reflected the moon, and Adora felt herself slipping. “ _You_ still have a choice, Adora.”

Adora shook her head, first to shake off the spell, then to deny Catra’s unspoken wish. 

“Never. I’ll never go back. I…” she drew a deep breath, always unsure how to piece the words together, how to make them sound right. “I’m free now, Catra.” 

Now it was Catra’s turn to shake her head in motherly disappointment. 

“No, Adora. You’re a prisoner.” 

She did something Adora hadn’t accounted for in all her forethought, all her imagined scenarios of how their first encounter as slayer and (almost) vampire would play out. 

She put her hand on Adora’s arm. 

“Come back,” she said. “Please.” 

Adora froze. She felt a familiar but strange prickle through her whole being, radiating from the calloused, clawed hand on her bicep. She didn’t dare look her in the eye, instead fixating on a star in the distance. She caught a trail of light tearing through the sky and remembered something about making a wish. What should she wish for? 

For a moment, she would have said yes. 

“Adora!” A familiar voice called, snapping Adora back in space and time. 

“Of fucking course,” Catra huffed, taking her hand back and placing it on her hip. “Your new friends are here to save you.” 

“I don’t… I don’t need…”

Adora felt the stake in her hand burn white hot, as if scolding her for forgetting. She winced and gripped it tighter, refusing to drop it.

 _We are watching,_ a chorus of feminine voices echoed from the sky.. 

“Did you hear that?” Adora asked, ponytail whipping back and forth as she searched for the source.

Catra narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “You okay there, slayer?” 

The seemingly spellbound slayer’s eyes stayed on the stars.

“Yeah, I... “ 

“Adora!” that other voice, a familiar tone that snapped Adora out of her daze, called again.

“Glimmer?” 

The pink-haired slayer, faithful archer by her side, walked toward the opposing pair. Their heaving chests revealed their exhaustion, having just exterminated a mini-horde of vampire fiends Hordak had no doubt diagnosed disposable, never meant to be more than a distraction.

“Get away from her,” Glimmer growled. 

They stood beside Adora, one on either side. A flicker of magic still wavered around Glimmer’s edges, casting her in violet hues. Bow’s arms, aching to retrieve an arrow, twitched at his sides. 

Catra rolled her eyes. 

“Mommy and daddy’s home, Adora,” she sneered. “Guess the playdate’s over.” 

“That’s right,” Bow said, before he could catch himself. “Uh, I mean, no, we’re not Adora’s parents… but this is over.” 

Glimmer tried to disguise her grimace as a smile. “That’s right, Bow. Playdate’s over.” A sliver of white teeth peered between her taut lips. “Go home to your daddy, half-vampire.” 

The half-demon examined her long nails. “Fine. I’ll go home. Say hi to your daddy for me.” She brought a hand up to her mouth in a faux-gasp. “Oh, that’s right… he’s dead.”

The vibrations from Glimmer’s aura made the earth shake. 

“Okay, okay,” Adora stepped between the two, arms outstretched. “Let’s call it a night. Catra. Leave now.”

Catra cocked her head. “You’ve got me right where you want me, and you’re just gonna let me go?”

“I don’t have you where I want you,” Adora admitted. “That’s why I’m letting you go.” 

“Funny, I was thinkin’ the same thing,” Catra said, crouching down and fixing her leggings. “To be continued, slayers.” 

She winked toward Adora and saluted before jumped off the cliff--a leap that would have surely killed a regular human, but she landed graceful as a cat, running away on all fours into the dark horizon. 

Bow shivered. “I can’t stand her. She’s just…“

“An ass,” Glimmer finished for him. “A pompous ass. She’s not as powerful as she pretends to be.” She turned her anger toward Adora. “You could’ve let me rough her up a little for that bullshit. Why’d you let her go?” 

Adora blinked. “It’s… complicated.” 

They’d grown up together, two foundlings under one roof. They’d thought they’d be together forever. 

Adora tried to form the words, but they dissipated under her tongue, melting back into her mind. She couldn’t say it. 

Glimmer squinted in doubt, but her anger didn’t last long. Adora was hard to stay mad at.

“Sure,” she conceded. “I’ll accept that. For now.” 

Bow, sensing the tension, kicked the ground. 

“So, are you guys hungry? Because I’m hungry.” 

“Seriously, Bow?” Glimmer huffed. “You’re thinking about _food_ after all that?”

As the two slayers feuded over late night munchies, Adora trained her eyes on the sky. The moon was still waxing. Not much longer until it was full. 

“I need to train more,” she said, speaking to no one in particular.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes i want to make catra and adora sexyfight but we gotta build up to that.


End file.
